Toshiba HD XA2 and Toshiba HD A20 I am in the process of getting a HD DVD player for my Samsung 1080P 46 in. HD LCD TV. I am kind of torn between the two units. Will I notice a visible difference between them when playing DVD's? Are the ones for sale now equipped with the latest firmware? HELP!!! Toshiba HD XA2 and Toshiba HD A20 I am in the process of getting a HD DVD player for my Samsung 1080P 46 in. HD LCD TV. I am kind of torn between the two units. Will I notice a visible difference... » Read More Toshiba HD XA2 and Toshiba HD A20 I am in the process of getting a HD DVD player for my Samsung 1080P 46 in. HD LCD TV. I am kind of torn between the two units. Will I notice a visible difference between them when playing DVD's? Are the ones for sale now equipped with the latest firmware? HELP!!! « Show Less
34092
A receiver is a radio tuner combined with an amplifier. A pure amplifier does not have a tuner. Most home entertainment systems have a receiver rather than an amp at the heart of their setups.
34093
Hey G Mont...you got caught in the zipper...man..J battle is 60 and he know what is a darn RECEIVER but u dont! Hahahahaa ....Just kidding... Actually Battle is right. I would suggest to Ronald that he must go with the XA2 as it has HDMI 1.3a and Ronald may also get the new ONKYO TX-SR805 Receiver that accepts hdmi 1.3 giving you DTS Master audio and True Dolby HD sound. Plus the upconversion is state of the art for SD Dvds on XA2. Your samsung will accept the HDMI and you will be enjoying stunning and engaging video due to the Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) circuitry on board XA2. XA2 is the wave of the Future...Need I say More? Hey G Mont...you got caught in the zipper...man..J battle is 60 and he know what is a darn RECEIVER but u dont! Hahahahaa ....Just kidding... Actually Battle is right. I would suggest to Ronald that he must go with the XA2 as it has HDMI 1.3a and Ronald may also get the new ONKYO TX-SR805 Receiver that accepts hdmi 1.3 giving you DTS Master audio and True Dolby HD sound. Plus the upconversion is state of the art for SD Dvds on XA2. Your samsung will accept the HDMI and you will be enjoying stunning and engaging video due to the Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) circuitry on board XA2. XA2 is... » Read More Hey G Mont...you got caught in the zipper...man..J battle is 60 and he know what is a darn RECEIVER but u dont! Hahahahaa ....Just kidding... Actually Battle is right. I would suggest to Ronald that he must go with the XA2 as it has HDMI 1.3a and Ronald may also get the new ONKYO TX-SR805 Receiver that accepts hdmi 1.3 giving you DTS Master audio and True Dolby HD sound. Plus the upconversion is state of the art for SD Dvds on XA2. Your samsung will accept the HDMI and you will be enjoying stunning and engaging video due to the Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) circuitry on board XA2. XA2 is the wave of the Future...Need I say More? « Show Less
34094
Paul - what do you mean by "receiver" - I would be connecting the DVD player directly to my Samsung LCD TV (Samsung LNS3251D 32" LCD HDTV) using the 2nd HDMI input. Am I good ?Also I found this comment about my Samsung: its HDMI connections still support version 1.0 and I cannot connect my Toshiba DVD player which supports Ver1.1 HDMI specs - Is this a problem if I get the A20? Thanks in advance....jon battle
34095
Actually Im 60 :) - To me "receiver" is your amp, or other box that is in-between your source and destination. all good. Thanks.
34096
lol..... Battle: you are under 30 right? Paul is probably a baby boomer like me. "Receiver" is a synonym for TV- in this context, he means your Samsung LCD. You can connect your DVD to your LCD via the 2nd HDMI with no prob. I can't answer the 1.0 vs. 1.1 question though- I definitely recommend you get it clarified before you buy the XA2.
34097
You will not notice any difference when playing HD-DVD's in the A20 or the XA2. The only difference will be the XA2 has analog outputs if you have a non HDMI receiver, and it has the REON chip for DVD upconversion (which is superior to what the A20 has)...If you have an older receiver with analog inputs (no HDMI) and have a lot of older DVD's then definately get the XA2.
2214381
I agree I need a SD player which can plug into any hdtv. I've read toshiba has developed a 32 gb SD card. It would be nice if Sony, Panasonic or someone else would build players which accepts the SDHC cards and plays all the different video formats.
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I should have posted this earlier. It appears to be an error message related to the disk. Could be disk stuck or disk drive dead (the latter in my case). I took Toshiba up on the replacement. It was something in the range of $80-$90 and the replacement unit actually appears to be new rather than refurb. I had enough of an investment in disks that it was worth it if I could get another couple of years' service.If you do go the replacement route, make sure to get a receipt notice from the post office. Toshiba actually lost our unit in receiving and it took a bit of yelling to get it straightened out.I'll eventually go Blu-Ray when the players are as good and the disks are as cheap as HD-DVD was two years ago. I should have posted this earlier. It appears to be an error message related to the disk. Could be disk stuck or disk drive dead (the latter in my case). I took Toshiba up on the replacement. It was something in the range of $80-$90 and the replacement unit actually appears to be new rather than refurb. I had enough of an investment in disks that it was worth it if I could get another couple of years' service.If you do go the replacement route, make sure to get a receipt notice from the post office. Toshiba actually lost our unit in receiving and it took a bit of yelling to get... » Read More I should have posted this earlier. It appears to be an error message related to the disk. Could be disk stuck or disk drive dead (the latter in my case). I took Toshiba up on the replacement. It was something in the range of $80-$90 and the replacement unit actually appears to be new rather than refurb. I had enough of an investment in disks that it was worth it if I could get another couple of years' service.If you do go the replacement route, make sure to get a receipt notice from the post office. Toshiba actually lost our unit in receiving and it took a bit of yelling to get it straightened out.I'll eventually go Blu-Ray when the players are as good and the disks are as cheap as HD-DVD was two years ago. « Show Less
573796
I have the Toshiba D-R410KU model that I bought in the Summer of 2009. I've recorded and watched nearly 4000 movies since then, and it's still holding up fine. I'd imagine the DR410 1080p is simply the newest version of the one I have, and the one I have definitely both records and plays.
713611
Update: Watched a dvd last night (the same dvd I first tried) and the picture was perfect - even using HDMI 1080p setting! This time I chose "Anynet HDMI DVD" from the source list on my tv settings, which I don't remember being an option before. I previously chose "DVI". I wonder if that made the difference. Hmm. Anyway....glad my dvd's now look just as great as the HD channels. Thank you for responding C.Woodruff. :)LadyR
125978
Make sure you have the latest FW version - easily downloaded from the WEB via the built-in Ethernet Port that ALL HD DVD PLAYERS HAVE.Latest FW = 1.1/1.1 Read this for the A35 INFOhttp://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=925599&highlight;=A35+FIRMWAREPhil
1676455
Make sure you have the latest FW version - easily downloaded from the WEB via the built-in Ethernet Port that ALL HD DVD PLAYERS HAVE. Latest FW = 1.1/1.1 Read this for the A35 INFO http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=925599&highlight=A35+FIRMWARE Phil
2061158
Hi Karen, I contacted Toshiba a couple of days ago...THEY don't even know about the specifications on this player. Sorry, tried to help.
42501
I have come to the conclusion after much research that our adversary in these usability concerns is indeed HDCP (Hi Definition Copy Protection). The answer in my case is to buy a new HDCP compliant display, which is not something I am willing to do. I have no intention of buying a new display until the one I already have fails. I am unable to ascertain from my manual which version of HDCP the Toshiba HD A3 supports. From my research the only function HDCP provides for me is the inability to watch every SD DVD I have tried in anything other than 480p. Since AACS has been cracked there is no need any more for HDCP, because the copy can now be done digitally 1:1 which more harmful for the industry than any analog threat. All HDCP is doing anymore is interfering with my fair use of my equipment.
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You are an idiot. Play a game in 800x600 (better rez than normal dvd) and then try in something higher (even below somethingx1080) and you will see a huge difference. If you truly believe that there will be no differences, you are prolly too ignorant to contribute to society. EDIT: Sorry about that. As for the actual question. Yes, you are kind of up a creek. Because of awesome new anti-pirating standards, you NEED HDMI to use these new players. All you can do is cross your fingers and hope they decide to make it so they can at least just play without HDMI but lower resolution. They are considering making it impossible to play without HDMI. As far as purchasing a new TV now I would suggest not because you are going to want more than one HDMI input after you get a few devices (two HDMI in are rare now and expensive). Also OLED and SED look pretty promising and you wouldn't wanna be kicking yourself in the butt again in a few years for jumping the gun.
616521
Hey Guys,Thanks for the advice. I ended up going with the 983. I expect to receive it mid April. I actually had a Toshiba D3 but I just recently sold it with my HD collection. As I have quite a large collection of SD DVD's it made sense to go with the best quality upconverting player available especially as there would be quite a noticible PQ difference on a 72" display. The plan now is to pick up a cheap Blue Ray player during thanksgiving or boxing day sales which I will use purely for Blue Ray while the 983 will be uses for everything else.
1785498
My player doesn't upscale very well at all. And, I am hooked up using HDMI. No way does Blu-ray Disc compare to HD DVD. I used to have an HD-XA2 and an HD A35 and those players were amazing at upscaling. Sometimes you couldn't tell the difference between high-def and standard def.
1738292
I also have been considering this TV and wondering about the HDMI 1.0 issue. Since so far no knowledgable techie has chirped in I did a little of my own research, and here is what I found out. This all comes from an industry web site hdmi.org ------------------------ The initial HDMI 1.0 specification was released in December 2002. Version 1.1 was released in May 2004. Version 1.2 was released in August of 2005. Version 1.2a was released in December of 2005. Version 1.3 was released in June of 2006. Q. What functionality was added to each specification? The following provides an overview of major functionality added to each version of HDMI HDMI 1.1 Support for DVD Audio ------------------------------- So my guess is that like the poster said it will not take the audio from his dvd player in the hdmi input, but I assume he could bring the audio in through other inputs assuming his dvd player has other outputs. Hopefully someone with more knowledge can elaborte on this, meanwhile I think I'll move on and look for a set that has at least a HDMI 1.1 interface since using a DVD player is one thing I want to do with it.
623941
Thanks for the info Kevin, just got back from a huge dvd store here and I noticed a lot of Blu Ray discs marked 'all regions' (1,2,3) on the back of them so Sony may be trying relax restrictions for now to corner the market here. I also just found out that's it's pointless getting a blu-ray and/or hd-dvd player as my 3 year old 43" Pioneer Plasma with external hig def set top box can only output 1024 X 768 pixels max, so I wouldn't visibly see blu-rays or hd-dvd's 1080p potential...think I'm better off just getting a good upscaling dvd player & a good hdmi cable. Except for PS2, dvd players/recorders sold here are region free out of the box anyway. Will look out for Oppo but don't think it's sold here. Thanks for the info Kevin, just got back from a huge dvd store here and I noticed a lot of Blu Ray discs marked 'all regions' (1,2,3) on the back of them so Sony may be trying relax restrictions for now to corner the market here. I also just found out that's it's pointless getting a blu-ray and/or hd-dvd player as my 3 year old 43" Pioneer Plasma with external hig def set top box can only output 1024 X 768 pixels max, so I wouldn't visibly see blu-rays or hd-dvd's 1080p potential...think I'm better off just getting a good upscaling dvd player & a good hdmi cable. Except for PS2, dvd... » Read More Thanks for the info Kevin, just got back from a huge dvd store here and I noticed a lot of Blu Ray discs marked 'all regions' (1,2,3) on the back of them so Sony may be trying relax restrictions for now to corner the market here. I also just found out that's it's pointless getting a blu-ray and/or hd-dvd player as my 3 year old 43" Pioneer Plasma with external hig def set top box can only output 1024 X 768 pixels max, so I wouldn't visibly see blu-rays or hd-dvd's 1080p potential...think I'm better off just getting a good upscaling dvd player & a good hdmi cable. Except for PS2, dvd players/recorders sold here are region free out of the box anyway. Will look out for Oppo but don't think it's sold here. « Show Less
345253
I have the X850A and the media player worked fine right out of the box. Some people who had purchased the same TV a few months before me had to have a tech come out and install some card to make the player work. I must have gotten the TV after they already made the updates. That being said...I still don't think the Media player (especially the one you're asking about--- the X1 vice the newer X10) is worth the money. Even at the reduced price of around $260. IMHO
277069
I wish I could help but I bought mine brand new on Amazon about a year and a half ago. The unit is a nice one and I have not had any problems with it. It plays all formats and getting a 5 or 6 dvd changer that also has HD upscaling is getting pretty hard to find.Realistically, I cannot see ANYONE selling a dvd player WITHOUT a remote since it is almost useless without it.
1179378
THANKS KELLER!!! i got what you said about the audio on the yamaha.about the HD A35 i sent them a mail very angry cuz it was their mistake and the should look the way to fix it not me... so im waiting for their replay HOPE THEY LET ME KEEP THE HD DVD PLAYERS jejejejeje... but as you said its better to come clean about this stuff.tomorrow i will go buy the cables to hook the analog from my hd 35 and to my receiver, still the audio with the HDMI sound INCREIDIBLE... i let you know how all this ends... AND THANKS AGAIN MY FRIEND!